Face Masks vs. Heat Stroke
Wearing face masks has become controversial in Japan as the nation enters the third summer since the Covid pandemic began.
Tag Archives: Covid
Visible Minorities: Torture and Murder in Japan Detention Centers
News Headline: “Prosecutors drop case over death of detained Sri Lankan woman.”
Pension System Failing to Lift Elderly Out of Poverty
Far too many elderly Japanese have continued to slip into poverty, threatening their very lives.
Bread & Roses: Do Sex Workers Really Have a Choice?
The Covid pandemic and desperation have driven many women into sex work in recent years, so what is the responsibility of society to cope with its dangers and oppressions?
Homeless in Kannai
The Yokohama Spring Homeless Patrol offers hope to those in the most desperate need for help within their community.
Visible Minorities: Good Riddance to an Evil Man
Former Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, who died February 1, was an evil man. Any honest obituary would admit as such.
Brutalizing Japan’s Foreign Worker Underclass
A broken rib, a chipped tooth—a worker kicked and beaten frequently over a period of two years. This is not a horror story of a survivor of a Chinese labor camp in Xinjiang, but rather that of a Vietnamese “technical intern” in Okayama, Japan.
Visible Minorities: US Military Should Combat Japan’s Xenophobia
US Forces Japan has the duty to recognize that what they do affects Visible Minorities in Japan, whether it be inspiring bigots to slam shop doors in their faces, or giving more ammunition to reactionaries who seek to seal off Japan’s borders.
Pandemic Exacerbates Japan’s Runaway Worker Crisis
The Covid pandemic has led many foreign workers to desert their places of employment in Japan, and some of them have become runaway workers and even illegal overstayers.
The Decline of the Soft Power Nation
The Covid pandemic has gradually unleashed political and social forces in Japan that have lifted its underlying xenophobia to the surface, and thus transformed its culture from one of attraction into one of repulsion for many of its previous admirers.
